Minister calls on Opposition to withdraw their ‘poorly drafted’ absentee voting law, which he says Gov’t ‘cannot support’ in its current form
Electoral reform does not belong to the OBA or the PLP. It belongs to the people…
Diallo Rabain affirmed this position as he argued why the One Bermuda Alliance should withdraw their Absentee Voting Bill 2025, and collaborate on wider electoral reform.
The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Digital Innovation reiterated that the PLP Government cannot support the bill in its current form, and he cited concern that House of Assembly rules may prevent a similar bill being tabled for at least a year.
When asked why they can’t go forward with a process by which Government puts forward amendments to the OBA’s bill rather than have it withdrawn, Minister Rabain said he has always wanted this process to be collaborative. However, he adds “the avenue that they’re taking is ‘let’s create the law and then figure out how it works’. We want to figure out how it works, and then the craft legislation around what the people of Bermuda have said they want.”
He says that Government has already started engaging with the Parliamentary Registrar and other stakeholders to understand what is needed for absentee voting, and that further discussion and collaboration should follow that, leading to a policy statement.
“The policy statement is then used to develop the legislation to carry that forward”, Minister Rabain adds. “Creating legislation without a policy behind it is a fool’s errand.”
Asked whether Government doesn’t want to go through the process of amending the legislation because it will be seen as an ‘OBA bill’, the Minister responded that “this will never be seen as the OBS bill, and it won’t be seen as the PLP’s bill.”
“This will be seen as the people’s bill because we are trying to put something in place that enhances the people’s democracy – not the PLP’s democracy, not the OBA’s democracy.” (WATCH ABOVE)
Elsewhere in our interview, Minister Rabain commented on some of the other proposals for electoral reform, such as rules for campaign financing and increasing the accuracy of voters’ rolls.
He said announcements about public consultation on electoral reform will be coming in the next few weeks.
Furthermore, he responds to OBA Leader Robert King’s comments that the Parliamentary Registrar does not have to be consulted before tabling absentee voting legislation, as technical details can be worked out in the future. (WATCH below)
